Thursday, February 12, 2009

Olbermann Apologizes for Mistake on Murdoch Quote

Keith Olbermann issued an apology yesterday for using a transcript that incorrectly quoted Rupert Murdoch as saying, "Even on [finance] terms, we have never been a company that tolerates facts" on a conference call to investors of News Corp., owners of FOX News. Murdoch had actually said, "Even in plush times, we have never been a company that tolerates fat."

Here was Olbermann's on-air statement:

Incidentally, a correction on Murdoch. We have quoted several times the transcript of a News Corp conference call provided by the usually reliable financial website called SeakingAlpha.com, in which the News Corp boss was quoted as saying, “we have never been a company that tolerates facts.” It turns out SeekingAlpha.com got it wrong. Murdoch, in fact, said “we have never been a company that tolerates fat.” SeekingAlpha.com has yet to correct or apologize for its mistake, so we will. Henceforth, we will stick exclusively to the transcripts from ShiverMeTimbers.com.

While it's impossible to be completely prepared for a downturn of this magnitude, we began priming ourselves for a weakening economy earlier last year. We have implemented strict cost cutting measures across all our operations.

We have reduced headcount in individual businesses where appropriate and we've scaled back on capital expenditures. Even in plush times, we have never been a company that tolerates fat. So in times like these, we are better positioned to weather this cycle than our competitors.

We've also consistently maintained a strong balance sheet, which today following our completion of the partial sale of NDS posts approximately $4.5 billion in cash. Given our strong financial position, we have the reserves on hand to cover over seven years of upcoming debt repayments. And we intend to operate our businesses and balance sheet as conservative as usual.